new tournament management software

[BeligerAnt]

All of the group stages and various size finals are perhaps best documented in the charts at:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/g0xan/robo ... -02-27.pdf

The charts are a pictorial representation of the algorithm implemented in AntLog.

...the best way to know what needs to be improved is to actually run it in a real situation.

No, the best way to improve the code is by well-structured testing with carefully chosen test data. A final test could be to take a set of previous results and running them through the code to check that the same results are achieved. Most of the testing should use simulated data that makes it easy to verify that the correct results are achieved.

Auto-save would be nice. I think the ultimate solution would be to build an application on a proper database so that each record was immediately written to disk. The problem is that this is yet another layer of complexity.

PDF can be generated via the open source Ghostscript, but it is probably rather complicated to incorporate with python. Since there are free PDF writers which install as printers it may be possible to simply provide a "Print" option to PDF. An HTML output would be simpler and more convenient.
Something that can easily be uploaded to the web is really useful, and that is one of the reasons for AntLog using OpenOffice.org

[Remote-Controlled Dave]

Whatever the faults, its good that someone new is giving it a go! So thanks for your interest and efforts.

[mTubes]

Thanks for link to the charts, but I've actually already looked at those... unfortunately it seems I can't read them correctly .

I'm sorry if my comment about testing got misconstrued - as I've said before, I don't want this to be used until it's fit to be used. I've been thoroughly testing with test data, and I'm going to carry on doing so (the reason it doesn't run groups correctly is because I've been telling it to do the wrong thing, not because it's not been doing what I tell it to ). I meant more that running it in a real situation would hopefully bring up new features that people would like, rather than that I would use an actual competition as time to try and find bugs.

regarding autosave, if people really wanted it, it wouldn't be hard to make it use a MySQL database, either running locally on the machine, or over the internet - there's some very good python modules around for interfacing with MySQL. However, as you said, it adds another layer of complexity. Frankly, I'm not keen to do it, because I think it over complicates the problem.

As for PDF, I was obviously wrong about it not being an option. I've had a look, and there are plenty of python modules around for writing to pdf, so it is do-able. However, it would require anyone using it to install the module, and seeing as you already need to have installed python for my code to work, I think this would be a bit too much hassle. That being said, if PDF export is what you'd like, I can implement it as an option, so that the program will also run without any non-standard modules.

currently, my plan is to use HTML as the main save format. I think it's the best option because it's both useful and simplistic, and if I save it without any styling people can use whatever CSS they like when it comes to putting it online. However, if you think a different filetype would be better, I'll switch to it.

Thank you very much for all the feedback - I don't know nearly as much about the competitions or how best to organize them as anyone here does, so I'm keen to get all the advice I can. I'll be uploading a new version this weekend, hopefully it resolves a good few of the problems.

[teamocean]

Some interesting comments here- I've been speaking to Mark and I would still like to use the new system for the draw as it speeds this up a lot and to use it alongside Antlog to run the competition.

I am also planning to use it for the fleaweight competition at the AWS so that it can be tried with a smaller competition.

[James]

just been trying out the v2 program and noticed a few things

1. if you have more than 64 robots (currently 67 ants signed up for AWS37) it seems the program creates 9 groups( 4 8-way & 5 7-way) which then causes a problem when you proceed to the final, as the final only has 16 robots in it, but you should have 18 from the group stages. the program seems to just loose the robots from group 9 . what it should do(and what antlog does) is allow up to 16 robots in 8 groups so that the final is never more than 16 robots.

2. it may or may not be my computer, but to select the winner of each fight you have to click on empty space in each box, nothing happens if you click on the robot names or the "vs". It would be nice if you could click anywhere in the box.

3. some sort of labels for the different rounds would make it clearer to follow the charts when going across them and make it more obvious what order the fights need to happen in.

it might be more useful to get something that will do the draw, and output the robots in groups for easy entry into antlog for this event, and then maybe work on getting this working as a complete program for future events.

james

[Remote-Controlled Dave]

it might be more useful to get something that will do the draw, and output the robots in groups for easy entry into antlog for this event, and then maybe work on getting this working as a complete program for future events.

I believe that's Will's plan, James. Just to use the draw element of this new system, then to input the draw results into the AntLog for the AWS. Or so he tells me. It would certainly speed the draw up!

[James]

I believe that's Will's plan, James. Just to use the draw element of this new system, then to input the draw results into the AntLog for the AWS. Or so he tells me. It would certainly speed the draw up!

Yeah that's probably a good idea, and it would definitly speed the draw up

As long as mark can get it to a point where it's doing a draw correctly (splitting them into 8 groups of up to 16) for the number of robots that we are expecting( 67 at last count) in time for the aws that sounds like a good idea

[teamocean]

Dave's got it right- I've asked Mark to create a separate program to do the draw but I am also going to get him to run his program alongside Antlog at the AWS just to see if it gets the same result and is as user friendly.

[mTubes]

Right, I've got a new version - the attachment on the first post has been updated.

A quick summary of most of the changes:

• Removed incorrect finals and second finals in groups stage
  Altered randomiser to be base on date - it will now create the same groups every time it's run on the same day
  Fixed the annoying problem where the text in each box was interfering with mouse clicks
  Fixed the issue James found, where entries which should have qualified to the finals were getting lost
  Moved 'select winner' pop-up to appear at mouse location - this still needs a little improvement though - the window size of the pop-up is now a slight problem.
  Adjusted generation method, so that the layout of fights corresponds correctly to the charts
  Buttons added to move back and forth between the groups and the finals
  Default groups size increased to 16
  Fixed a horrible bug where things wouldn't show correctly if a group was much smaller than its maximum possible size
  Fixed a few little issues that occasionally caused bugs/crashes

There is now a separate tool included for just generating groups. It's called 'draw.py' and is included in the same folder as everything else. Simply double click it to run.
It uses the same date-based method of randomising as the new version of the main program. Once it's made the groups, you can simply select the contents of each box
and ctrl-c to copy them.

Hopefully I might have a version soon with saving, loading, undoing and redoing. I've got most of the undo/redo functionality working, but it's not included in this download because it's very slow and buggy. However, it might be some time before I can get it working adequately.

[James]

just downloaded the v3 of this and couldn't get the tournament.py file to open properly, all I got was a quick flash of the console window, then some text in the console window and it closed and nothing else happened

the draw.py file opened though, noticed a few more things...

1. the program crashes if you try and do a draw for more than 64 robots. It will do a draw for 64 robots fine, but when I try and do a draw for 65 it crashes.
If it is going to be used at the AWS it needs to be able to cope with more than 64 robots. There are 70+(71 I think) Ants signed up, and even if someone doesn't turn up we may well still have more than 64 robots...

2. It would be better if the program spilt 64 robots into 8 groups of 8 instead of 4 groups of 16, as with 4 groups if someone has 4 robots they will be in every group, so if another person also has 4 robots, they will always be in a group with each other, with 8 groups they probably won't be in all the same groups.

3. Antlog was designed to use robot names, not drivers and robot names, so it would be better if it just output the robot names in each group, as the driver of each robot is not that important(after the draw has been done). Although it is nice to have it in your program, antlog would work better/ be easier to follow without it.

all of the above issues really need to be fixed if this is going to be used at the AWS, but if you can get it working it will definitely save time/effort doing the draw